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Rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation using direct seeding is susceptible to chilling stress, particularly during seed germination and early seedling growth in the early season of a double cropping system. Alternatively, seed priming with various plant growth-promoting hormones is an effective technique to promote rapid and uniform emergence under chilling stress. Therefore, we evaluated the impact of gibberellin A3 (GA3) and brassinolide (BR) priming on rice seed emergence, examining their proteomic responses under low-temperature conditions. Results indicated that GA3 and BR increased the seed germination rate by 22.67% and 7.33% at 72 h and 35% and 15% at 96 h compared to the control (CK), respectively. Furthermore, proteomic analysis identified 2551, 2614, and 2592 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in GA, BR, and CK, respectively. Among them, GA exhibited 84 upregulated and 260 downregulated DEPs, while BR showed 112 upregulated and 102 downregulated DEPs, and CK had 123 upregulated and 81 downregulated DEPs. Notably, under chilling stress, both GA3 and BR are involved in peroxide metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and inositol phosphate metabolism, enhancing antioxidant capacity and providing energy substances for germination. In addition, GA3 triggers the specific regulation of stress responsive protein activation, GTP activation, and ascorbic acid biosynthesis and promotes the stability and integrity of cell membranes, as well as the synthesis of cell walls, providing physical defense for seeds to resist low temperatures. At the same time, BR triggers specific involvement in ribosome synthesis and amino acid synthesis, promoting biosynthetic ability and metabolic regulation to maintain plant life activities under low-temperature stress. Furthermore, the various genes’ expression (OsJ_16716, OsPAL1, RINO1) confirmed GA3 and BR involved in peroxide metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and inositol phosphate metabolism, enhancing antioxidant capacity and providing energy substances for germination. This study provides valuable insights into how rice seed embryo responds to and tolerates chilling stress with GA3 seed priming.

Introduction/BackgroundDirect-seeded rice is exceptionally vulnerable to chilling stress, especially at the seed germination and seedling growth stages in the early season of the double cropping system.MethodsTherefore, we conducted two experiments to evaluate the role of various seed primings and their different concentrations of plant growth regulators [experiment 1—abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellin (GA3), salicylic acid (SA), brassinolide (BR), paclobutrazol, uniconazole (UN), melatonin (MT), and jasmonic acid (JA)] and osmopriming substances (chitosan, polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG6000), and CaCl2) and experiment 2—GA, BR (two best), CaCl2 (worst), and control (CK)] on rice seedlings under low temperature condition.ResultsResults showed that the maximum germination rate of 98% was recorded in GA3 (10 mgL−1) and BR (0.3 mgL−1) among treatments. Compared to CK, root and shoot length were improved in ABA (0.5 mgL−1) and GA3 (100 mgL−1) by 64% and 68%, respectively. At the same time, root and shoot weights (fresh and dry) were enhanced in Paclobutrazol (300 mgL−1) and GA3 among treatments. Furthermore, the average root volume, average root diameter, and total root surface area were increased by 27%, 38%, and 33% in Paclobutrazol (300 mgL−1), Paclobutrazol (200 mgL−1) and JA (1 mgL−1) treatments, respectively compared to CK. In the second experiment, a respective increase of 26%, 19%, 38%, and 59% was noted in SOD, POD, CAT, and APX enzyme activities in GA treatment compared to CK. Similarly, proline, soluble sugar, soluble protein, and GA content were also improved by 42%, 25.74%, 27%, and 19%, respectively, in GA treatment compared to CK. However, a respective reduction of 21% and 18% was noted in MDA and ABA content in GA treatment compared to CK. Our finding highlighted that better germination of primed-rice seedlings was associated with fresh and dry weights of the roots and shoots and the average root volume of the seedlings.DiscussionOur results suggested that GA3 (10 mg L−1) and BR (0.3 mg L−1) seed priming prevent rice seedlings from chilling-induced oxidative stress by regulating antioxidant enzyme activities and maintaining ABA, GA, MDA, soluble sugar, and protein content. However, further studies (transcriptome and proteome) are needed to explore the molecular mechanisms involved in seed priming-induced chilling tolerance under field conditions.

Photosynthesis is responsible for 90–95% of organic matter in crop yield. The light energy utilization rate of high-yielding rice varieties is 1.0–1.5%, but the ideal value is about 3–5%. Yield can be further improved by improving photosynthetic function. Through the initial screening and re-screening of 220 Southeast Asian germplasm resources, we found that the net photosynthetic rate of Southeast Asian germplasm resource C1 was 36.96 μmol m−2 S−1, which is close to that of C4 plant maize and 3.26 times higher than that of Southeast Asian germplasm resource G164 at 11.26 μmol m−2 S−1. Using C1 and G164 as materials, we compared the tissue structure, chloroplast ultrastructure, photosynthetic physiological indicators, and proteomics of sword leaves to determine the factors affecting photosynthetic function. Compared with G164, C1 exhibited increased number of vascular bundles, increased stomatal size and density, more abundant and neatly arranged chloroplasts and thylakoid grana, and higher chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. The activities and contents of the key photosynthetic enzyme Rubisco were higher in C1 than in G164. The two germplasm resources were subjected to iTRAQ analysis, and the results showed that compared with C1, nine proteins were down-regulated and one protein was up-regulated and associated with photosynthetic electron transport in G164; a total of 17 differential proteins were associated with CO2 fixation, and nine were up-regulated and eight differential proteins were down-regulated in G164. The identified genes encode proteins in the photosynthesis and carbon fixation pathways, and the changes in gene expression were verified by real-time qPCR. The gene expression patterns were consistent with the protein expression patterns. The results suggest that most differential proteins are involved in electron transfer from PSII to PSI and in the CO2 fixation pathway, and increasing the levels of such proteins can effectively enhance the photosynthetic efficiency. C1 can be used as a donor material for selection of high light efficiency varieties and in-depth photosynthesis studies.

High-temperature stress can cause serious abiotic damage that limits the yield and quality of rice. Heat tolerance (HT) during the flowering stage of rice is a key trait that can guarantee a high and stable yield under heat stress. HT is a complex trait that is regulated by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs); however, few underlying genes have been fine mapped and cloned. In this study, the F2:3 population derived from a cross between Huanghuazhan (HHZ), a heat-tolerant cultivar, and 9311, a heat-sensitive variety, was used to map HT QTLs during the flowering stage in rice. A new major QTL, qHTT8, controlling HT was identified on chromosome 8 using the bulked-segregant analysis (BSA)-seq method. The QTL qHTT8 was mapped into the 3,555,000–4,520,000 bp, which had a size of 0.965 Mb. The candidate region of qHTT8 on chromosome 8 contained 65 predicted genes, and 10 putative predicted genes were found to be associated with abiotic stress tolerance. Furthermore, qRT-PCR was performed to analyze the differential expression of these 10 genes between HHZ and 9311 under high temperature conditions. LOC_Os08g07010 and LOC_Os08g07440 were highly induced in HHZ compared with 9311 under heat stress. Orthologous genes of LOC_Os08g07010 and LOC_Os08g07440 in plants played a role in abiotic stress, suggesting that they may be the candidate genes of qHTT8. Generally, the results of this study will prove useful for future efforts to clone qHTT8 and breed heat-tolerant varieties of rice using marker-assisted selection.

Two-line super hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) Guiliangyou 2 was taken as the e×perimental variety, the growth and physiological characteristics of rice under conventional tillage and smashing ridge tillage were compared based on field research. The results showed that smashing ridge tillage was beneficial to the tillering growth of rice plants in the the middle and later periods of tillering; under the tillage mode, the white root was more, the vigour was strong during the whole growing period, the SPAD was e×tremely significantly higher than that of conventional tillage, the net photosynthetic rate of the leaves was high and held green long, which were beneficial to the production and accumulation of photoassimilates; during mature period, the dry matter accumulation of the overground part under smashing ridge tillage was significantly higher than that of conventional tillage, and the number of productive ears under smashing ridge tillage was more than that of conventional tillage by 27.6 ×104/hm2, thus, the yield-increasing effect was significant and increased by 20.36%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]